The use of solid-liquid separations is widespread and ranges from the large volume separations of minerals from solid-liquid mixtures to the small batch separations of high value products in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industries. Gravitation, pressure, temperature, centrifugation, and fluid dynamics have dictated traditional solid-liquid separation for the past 50 years. Traditional solid-liquid separation typically consists of two primary steps. The first step is a mechanical step in which the solid particulate is separated from the liquid by mechanical means. The mechanical means can be mechanical pressure such as applied by a piston, gas pressure, hydrodynamic pressure, gravitational pressure, centrifugal pressure or a combination thereof wherein the liquid passes through a filter and the solid is retained by the filter. One problem encountered is solid loss as a result of solid “breaking through”, i.e., passing through, the filter. An even more serious problem is that the mechanical separation step does not result in a complete separation. This necessitates the second step, a thermal drying process. The thermal drying process is very much less energy efficient, a factor of over 100-200 times less energy efficient, than the mechanical step. Since enormous volumes of materials are processed each year, more efficient mechanical solid-liquid separations will result in dramatic reductions in overall energy consumption by reducing downstream drying requirements. This would impact energy consumption since thermal drying accounts for a significant portion of total worldwide energy consumption.
In some instances, high-gradient magnetic field separation has been used to separate particular magnetic solids from a mixture of solids in a liquid.
An object of the present invention is to provide a more efficient and faster process for cake-filtration solid-liquid separation.